The Operations Tab

On this page: Tags Root I Tags Inside the Root Tag I Additional Operations I Operations on Text Runs I Operations in Tables I Operations in Lists I Operations in Tables of Contents I Next Pages

The Operations Tab in the Ribbon offers you a wide variety of options for tag creation, editing, and more. In addition, these operations are available when right-clicking (or otherwise opening the context menu) on a particular tag.

From the Tags Root

The list of operations below are available when selecting the Tags tag, also known as the Tags Root. Most of these operations are also available when other tags are selected. The operations that are not available with other tags will be noted in the description. In addition, selecting other tags will make available other operations and these will be discussed later.

Create Document Tag – (only available when selecting the Tags Root) – Creates a Document tag at the top of the tree, immediately underneath the Tags Root, and moves all other tags inside the Document tag. PDF/UA mandates that the Tags tree be structured this way because it conveys that the content that follows is one logical document.
Untag – Places the selected content in an artifact container. (From the Tags Root, Untag will place all of the content in the entire document into Artifact containers on a per page basis.)
Tag properties – (grayed out from the Tags root) – Places focus on the Properties panel for the tag selected.
Expand all – opens the selected tag(s) all the way to their furthest most “leaf” (text run level, etc.)
Collapse all – closes the selected tag(s).
Expand tag(s) – opens the tags to the “first level” – for example, to the text element level – as opposed to “Expand all” which opens tags and their contents all the way up.
Paste – From the Tags root, when a tag is “cut” from elsewhere in the document, paste will place that tag as the last tag in the Tags tree (inside the the Tags root). When other tags besides the Tags root are selected, then Paste has two options. These are discussed below.
Create tag (has sub-menu) – the only option from the Tags root is to create a tag as a child. This’ll place all of the content in the Tags Root into a <P> tag. The options as they relate to other tags within the Tags root are explained below.
Cleanup (has sub-menu) – when the menu is expanded, options include:
1. Full clean-up – removes all empty tags, containers, etc. (including empty table cells) from the entire document.
2. Skip empty cells – Removes all empty tags, containers, etc. except empty table cells. (Helpful for removing empty tags in a document but keeping empty table cells for formatting purposes.)
Highlight content (checkbox) – with this checked, when content is selected in the Tags tree it’ll be highlighted in the Physical View.
Flatten Tags – Removes all Part, Section, Article, Div., etc. (grouping) tags from the document and “pushes” the remaining tags to the root level to reduce unnecessary (and often confusing) nesting.
Artifact all images – (only available when selecting the Tags Root) – Selects all of the images in the document and untags them, placing them in Artifact containers. This can be very useful if, for example, the document is full of tables. Because all of the lines in a table come into the PDF as images, this quickly and easily removes all of the lines so that they won’t be mistakenly placed into the <TH> and/or <TD> tags when tagging a table.
Remove Role maps – (only available when selecting the Tags Root) – This option converts all non-standard tags to the standard PDF tag that they were mapped to.

Operations for Tags Inside the Tags Root

Other tags (that are not the Tags Root) also have the following operations available either in the Operations Tab or by right-clicking on the tag itself (or using the keyboard to open the context menu):

1. Merge Tags – This feature can be used to easily combine the content in multiple tags into one tag.
2. Copy – Allows you to copy empty tags.
3. Cut – A tag, text, etc., may be selected in the Tags Tree, cut from its current position, and then pasted elsewhere in the reading order.
  Note: Pasting content into the Tags root was mentioned in the previous section. Options to paste into other locations are addressed in numbers 7 and 8 of this list.
4. Paste – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
  1. Paste as sibling – pasted tag is inserted immediately after the selected tag
  2. Paste as child – pasted tag is inserted as the last child of the selected tag.
5. Create Tag – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
  1. Create tag as a parent – Creates a <P> tag and places the originally selected tag as a child inside.
  2. Create tag as sibling before – Creates an empty <P> tag and places it in the tag tree above and at the same level as the selected tag.
  3. Create tag as sibling after – Creates an empty <P> tag and places it in the tag tree below and at the same level as the selected tag.
  4. Create tag as child – Creates an empty <P> tag and places it as a child (inside) the selected tag.
6. Level Up – Pushes the selected element (tag, text element, etc.) out of the tag that it is currently placed in.
  Note: Level up will not push a tag out of (so that it’s a sibling to) the Tags root.
7. Level Up Children of Tag – Pushes the content inside the selected tag out of the parent tag.
  Note: Elements that, according to PDF specifications should be in a tag (text elements, paths, annotations, etc.) cannot be leveled up out of all tags (so that they end up being siblings to the Tags root).
8. Change tag order – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
  1. Up – Moves the selected tag up in the reading order within its parent tag.
  2. Down – Moves the selected tag up down in the reading order within its parent tag.
9. Tag similar – Heading Tags only – Finds content with similar attributes (font, etc.) and tags it all similarly. Ideal for quickly tagging all text with the similar appearance as the same Heading Level.
10. Copy contents… – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
  1. To Actual Text – Copies the text in the tag and pastes it in the actual text of that tag’s properties. This can be helpful, for example, when fixing poor OCR jobs.
  2. To Alt Text – Copies the text in the tag and pastes it in the Alt text of that tag’s properties.

Additional Operations

In addition to the operations listed available for the Tags Root and generic operations available for all tags, there are certain operations that are tag specific and are only available when a particular tag is selected. Those operations are explained in this section.

Text Runs

When a text run is selected, the following options are also available:

Create Tag – Places the selected text run(s) in a Paragraph tag.
Split Text – Allows you to split the text run if, for example, some of the text within the text run needs to be isolated for a particular reason. Choose “Split Text,” place the cursor in the text run where you want to make the split, and then press the Space Bar on your keyboard.
Mark Font as All Caps – Occasionally, a word may be in mixed capital and lower-case letters which could prevent the text from being read correctly by a screen reader. Marking the font as all caps places the text in a <Span> tag and gives it alternative text in all capital letters so that it will be correctly read.

Table Tags

Cleanup – While included (and mentioned) with other tags, from within tables (in <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, and/or <TD> tags) there’s an additional option – Table full cleanup. When selected, it’ll do a full cleanup (getting rid of all of the empty tags) within just that table.
Calculate bounding box – (option available on Figure, Formula, Link, Reference, Note, and Table tags) – Required for PDF/UA conformance, the previously mentioned tags need to have their bounding boxes calculated to know where on the page the tag’s contents is positioned. This operation accomplishes that task instantly.
Linearize Table – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
1. Horizontally – Converts the cells to <P> tags across the table from top to bottom and left to right, row by row. (Also removes the <Table> and <TR> tags so that the <P> tags are at the root level.)
  Tip: When choosing to linearize a table, first open the table editor to view the organization of the table and to decide whether to linearize horizontally or vertically. After the table cells have been converted to <P> tags, select <P> tags and merge them as needed so that complete paragraphs of text are tagged together.
2. Vertically – Converts the cells to <P> tags column by column across the table from left to right. (Also removes the <Table> and <TR> tags so that the <P> tags are at the root level.)
Insert row – Places a new <TR> as the last tag in the Table.
Insert Caption – Places an empty <Caption> tag inside the table before the first <TR>. The caption text can then be selected in the Physical View and moved inside the <Caption> tag.
Create linked headers – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
1. One level – Automatically links data cells in the table to their most immediate header cells (column and/or row) based on scope and span. Data cells are automatically associated with their corresponding header IDs. Note: When one level linked headers are automatically generated, the data cells are linked to their most immediate header cells (column and/or row) based on scope. Then, if there are multiple rows/columns of headers, the “inner most header” will be linked to the next header moving out towards the edge of the table.
2. Recursive – Automatically links data cells in the table to their immediate header cells (column and/or row) which are then “recursively” (subsequently) linked to their header cells and so on. This can be particularly helpful for tables with multiple rows of column headers and/or multiple columns of row headers.
Show table editor – Opens the Table Editor panel. (This is available by selecting <Table>, <TR>, <TH>, and/or <TD> tags.)

Table Row Tags

Insert Row – When selected, a sub-menu opens. The options are:
1. Insert row before – Adds an additional table row (with data cells) into the <Table> tag as a sibling before the selected <TR> tag.
2. Insert row after – Adds an additional table row (with data cells) into the <Table> tag as a sibling after the selected <TR> tag.
Insert Cells – Will insert a new <TD> as the last tag inside the selected <TR>.

Table Header (TH) and/or Table Data (TD) Tags

Merge cells by row – Selecting the cells in a <TR> and thcn choosing this option will merge all of the cells selected into a single cell.
Insert Cells – Select this and then, in the dialog box, choose to insert cell(s) before or after the cell that you originally selected.
Insert cell after – Places a new <TD> in the <TR> after the cell that was selected when choosing this option.
Insert cell before – Places a new <TD> in the <TR> before the cell that was selected when choosing this option.
Split to Rows – Selecting a cell and then choosing “Split to rows” will put the text in the cell into separate table rows (one row per line of text in the physical view).

Lists

Insert LI – Places a new empty <LI> tag as the last child inside the selected <L> tag.

LI (List Item) Tags

Insert List – Creates a new <L> tag and places it inside the <LBody> tag that is in the selected <LI>. This is the correct way to structure a nested list.
Insert Lbody – Places an empty <LBody> as the last child inside the <LI>. Content for the list can then be selected and moved into the new <LBody>.
Insert Lbl – Places an empty <Lbl> as the last child inside the <LI>. Content for the label can then be selected and moved into the new <Lbl>.

TOC (Table of Contents) Tags

Artifact Leaders – This option will untag all of the leaders (for example, the dot leaders) in the TOC and place them in Artifact containers so that they are not read by screen readers.
Insert TOCI (Table of Content Item) – Places an empty <TOCI> tag as the last child inside the <TOC>.

TOCI (Table of Contents Item) Tags

Insert Reference – Places an empty <Reference> tag as the last child inside the selected <TOCI>.
Insert Lbl – Places an empty <Lbl> tag as the last child inside the selected <TOCI>. If there are section numbers in the Table of Contents, then those section numbers should be placed inside <Lbl> tags within the <TOCI>.
Insert Nonstruct – Places an empty <NonStruct> tag as the last child inside the selected <TOCI>. This is a tag that tells screen readers that the contents of the tag should not be processed by assistive technology. For example, all of the dot leaders should be placed in <Nonstruct> tags.
Caution: Most screen readers available today will actually read the dot leaders even if they are in <Nonstruct> tags. For this reason, it may be best to simply place the dot leaders in Artifact Containers.
Insert Paragraph – Places an empty <P> tag as the last child inside the selected <TOCI>.
Insert TOC – Places an empty <TOC> tag as the last child inside the selected <TOCI>. This is useful if you need to create a nested Table of Contents.

Follow the links below to view other pages in the User’s Guide:

Page 1- Welcome, Getting Started

Page 2 – The Toolbar and Ribbon

Page 3 – Insert Tag and Convert Tag Tabs

Page 4 – The Settings Tab

Page 5 – The Windows Tab

Page 6 – The Operations Tab

Page 7 – The Tag Properties Panel

Page 8 – The Integrity Validator